2013 British Grand Prix

Which F1 driver was the best performer during the British Grand Prix weekend?

Review how each driver got on below and vote for who impressed you the most during the last race weekend.

British Grand Prix driver-by-driver

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – Said Hamilton’s pole position lap was “phenomenal” and “wasn?óÔé¼Ôäót in reach” for the Red Bull. He extended his unbeaten run against Webber in qualifying, though by the smallest margin so far, and took third on the grid. Having passed Rosberg at the start he assumed the lead after Hamilton’s early puncture. He responded to early pressure from Rosberg after the first Safety Car and had a steady three second lead when his gearbox failed on lap 41.

Mark Webber – Having got off the line well in Monaco and Canada, Webber made a dreadful getaway at Silverstone. Contact with Grosjean at the first corner broke his wing and he fell to 14th, but gained three spots before pitting. He passed Perez and Grosjean during his second stint and Red Bull took advantage of the final Safety Car deployment to put him on a fresh set of tyres for the final blast. He wasted no time passing Ricciardo, Sutil and Raikkonen and closed on leader Rosberg, finishing within a second of the Mercedes having set fastest lap on the final tour.

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – After qualifying on the fifth row Alonso said Ferrari hadn’t improved their car quickly enough and suggested Pirelli’s tyre choices were favouring their rivals. He narrowly avoided a puncture as his tyre began to disintegrate as he pitted on lap ten. And he was relieved to escape injury when Perez’s tyre exploded in front of him with six laps to go. Although pitting shortly before the second Safety Car came out was a setback that cost him several places, it also gave him the advantage of fresh tyres at the end of the race, which he used to pass a string of rivals and claim the last podium place.

Felipe Massa – Massa racked up his fourth crash in three race weekends during second practice, and an engine problem on Saturday morning cost him more running time. Come qualifying, he was unable to make it into Q3. It looked like things were finally going his way when a superb start propelled him to sixth from eleventh. But his left-rear tyre failed on lap ten, causing a spin which left him last for 11 laps. The Safety Cars helped him come back into contention – particularly the last one, during which he put on a new set of tyres and subsequently climbed to sixth.

McLaren

Jenson Button – Both McLaren drivers failed to reach Q3 again. Button elected to start on the hard tyres but quickly suffered front and rear graining and was passed by Perez and Webber. He was a sitting duck on worn tyres at the final restart, losing three places in one lap and finishing out of the points.

Sergio Perez – Perez was the first driver to experience a left-rear tyre failure during final practice. Tyre warm-up was a problem for him during qualifying, and getting called into the weighbridge didn’t help matters. He ran a different strategy to his team mate which seemed to be working better. But after the final restart he suffered his second puncture of the weekend and the team chose to retire his car.

Lotus

Kimi Raikkonen – Raikkonen was the only Lotus driver to run the team’s new Drag Reduction Device, but he was out-qualified by his team mate for the first time this year. He got ahead of Ricciardo at the start but was jumped by Alonso at the first round of pit stops despite Lotus producing one of their better efforts. He also lost out to his team mate, though the team quickly ordered Grosjean to move aside. But they weren’t alert to the possibility of bringing Raikkonen in during the final Safety Car. Defenceless on worn tyres, he fell from second to fifth.

Romain Grosjean – Grosjean picked up front wing damage early in the race and after being told to let Raikkonen past began to experience problems with his tyres. He was passed by Ricciardo and Webber at Brooklands on consecutive laps. He did take on fresh tyres for the final restart but his front wing eventually failed and Lotus retired his car.

Mercedes

Nico Rosberg – Couldn’t match Hamilton in qualifying and was beaten off the line by Vettel. Hamilton’s puncture promoted him to second and Rosberg almost suffered one as well. While chasing Vettel during the second stint he felt a problem with his left-rear tyre was developing. Vettel’s retirement served to both hand Rosberg the lead and give him the chance to make a pit stop without losing his newly-won advantage. He had enough in hand to keep Webber at bay and escaped a penalty for going to quickly under yellow flags – the stewards gave him a reprimand.

Lewis Hamilton – Wasn’t happy with his car’s balance in practice but a superb lap in qualifying secured his second pole position of the year. Vettel was just beginning to edge into his two second lead when Hamilton’s left-rear tyre exploded, robbing us of an intriguing battle. It dropped him to last, but he quickly gained ground due to the Safety Car. He ran a long middle stint on hards and changed tyres for the last time five laps before the last Safety Car period. He dispensed with Di Resta and Grosjean before the final charge to the flag during which he took four more cars, ending up passing Raikkonen for fourth.

Sauber

Nico Hulkenberg – Felt 15th on the grid was “more or less the best we could do”. A slow puncture forced an early second pit stop on lap 25, which put him on a three-stop strategy. The final Safety Car reduced the disadvantage of this and allowed him to finish tenth for Sauber’s first point since China. It might have been two had he not run wide at the restart, losing a place to Di Resta.

Esteban Gutierrez – Was knocked out in Q1 for the fifth time in eight races: “It seems I am losing a lot of time at the exit of the corners,” he said, “and this is tricky, because that is usually when I try to push and get things right.” In the race he also had a tyre failure which destroyed his front wing. A pit stop to replace it left him back among the tail-enders.

Force India

Paul di Resta – Having failed to progress beyond Q1 in the last two races, Di Resta was “over the moon” to equal the best qualifying performance of his career by taking fifth place. Then came the news he’d been thrown out of qualifying for being underweight. From 22nd on the grid he passed the Caterham, Marussia and Williams drivers early on, and gained a series of places after his first pit stop to hold 11th after the first Safety Car period. His progress slowed from then on, though he battled gamely with Hamilton, and eventually took two points for ninth.

Adrian Sutil – Ran in a podium position during the middle part of the race, resisting pressure from Alonso. Running a two-stop strategy the team left him out for three laps after Alonso’s second stop, dropping Sutil behind the Ferrari as well as Raikkonen. They also declined to bring him in during the final Safety Car which brought him back up to third but he was passed four times in the subsequent run to the chequered flag.

Williams

Pastor Maldonado – Blamed Hulkenberg’s off at the final restart for losing him two places and with it the chance of scoring the first points of the year for Williams.

Valtteri Bottas – After his Canada heroics he was unable to drag the FW35 into Q2 at Silverstone. Struggled with his set-up.

Toro Rosso

Jean-Eric Vergne – Vergne was disappointed to miss the top ten shoot-out in qualifying: “I made a mistake on my quick lap in Q2 and that?óÔé¼Ôäós the plain fact and I?óÔé¼Ôäóm very upset about it, as it lost me the chance to get into Q3 which was definitely possible.” His tyre explosion on lap 14 caused damage to the rear of his car which ultimately forced the team to retire him.

Daniel Ricciardo – Admitted he was surprised to qualify as high as sixth, which became a career-best fifth after Di Resta’s penalty. He held seventh for much of the race, passing Grosjean on the way. But he was among the drivers who did not make a late pit stop under the Safety Car and suffered for it, slipping from fourth to eighth at the end of the race.

Caterham

Charles Pic – Conclusively won the ‘battle at the back’, out-qualifying his team mate and the Marussias and leading them home. Was ahead of Bottas at the final Safety Car period but couldn’t keep the Williams behind.

Giedo van der Garde – As he was carrying a grid penalty from Canada the team only gave him a perfunctory tun in qualifying to save tyres. He spent much of the race battling Chilton, and lost. ” I did pass him with a couple of laps left, but it was very tight on track and I had to give the place back which is obviously a shame,” he said.

Marussia

Jules Bianchi – Reprimanded for failing to stop at the weighbridge during qualifying. He fell behind Chilton at the start but immediately repassed him and went after Pic, but never quite had the pace to get on terms with the Caterham.

Max Chilton – “A day that I will never forget,” said Chilton after his home race. Kept Van der Garde behind at the end despite having tyres that were eight laps older.

176 comments on Vote for your 2013 British GP driver of the weekend

@keithcollantine there must be a problem with the form, there was no option to vote for Pirelli, they featured all weekend long, and boy didn’t they deliver on Sunday? I’ve never seen so much action from this 1 performer. And did you see how many overtakes they managed to make in 1 race! Just look at the points, they lead the Drivers and Constructors Championship by quite some margin, their nearest rival is no where to be seen… Completely dominating performance… The media are all over Pirelli, and its all anyone in the paddock ever talks about now. Pirelli is what F1 is all about at the moment, so how could they not be the Driver of the Weekend?

I feel particularly sorry for Di Resta. I heard from a mate in the team that it technically wasn’t the car that was underweight, but actually Paul, because he lost more weight in the cockpit than expected (I’m told he lost 1.5kg in weight between the start and end of qualy)

That said, I can’t argue that Hamilton ha anything other than a fantastic performance all weekend, so my vote goes to him.

Its hard to pick a driver tbh, Hamilton drove a great race but wasnt good enough for DOTD in my opinion seeing as he gained massively under the safety car towards the tail-end of the race. Still it was hard to think about him losing that race had he not been so unlucky with the tyre blowout. Webber and Alonso raced well too but then again both gained from the safety car!

Great racing by Nico Rosberg, Mark Webber, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa. Kimi was also pretty good but the team let him down again, I am still wondering if it would have been possible for him to just pit if he thought it was the thing to do, without waiting for the call.

Mark did a great recovery (pretty close to a win) from a horrific start, it’s funny that he always botches the start when he’s side by side with Seb Vettel, but lacking further proof I’ll assume it is MW’s fault. So, he was not the DOTW AFAIAC.

Fernando and Felipe neither, due to their abysmal performance on Saturday. Extra points for Felipe for his great start and for his recovery drive after a tyre blowup, clearly no fault of his. BTW, it amazes me how the usual loathers can say that Alonso was incredibly lucky by pitting just before the second SC. It was still before the SC and he paid the price losing 5 positions (3rd to 8th) that he had to recover afterwards, while those who pitted with the SC first lap like Nico Rosberg got it for free. Alonso was lucky pitting for the first time just before his tyre failed and surviving Sergio’s tyre blowout, but not at all with the SC.

I’m happy that Nico won, but he was not the best on Saturday, and would surely have been only third in the race without the Lewis’ and Seb’s mishaps (and Mark would also have passed him in just one more lap). So, pretty good Nico but not quite the best IMAO, even if he won.

So I’m giving it to Lewis. An awesome qualifyng lap, and well on his way to victory when his tyre exploded (one could think it was poetic justice after the secret tyre testing, but then it should have happened also to Nico), afterwards a great recovery drive. He could hardly have done any better. Honorable mention also to Paul di Resta, great qualifying and a points finish from the back of the grid.

And Seb Vettel? Decent (but not the best) quali performance, and seemed poised to win for most of the race. But then he blew it. Not the tyres, mind you, but the drive train or whatever. Therefore, not Pirelli or anybody else to blame. A 100% deserved DNF for SV/RBR. So there.

BTW it was unsportsmanlike and dangerous to other drivers to leave the damaged RBR in the track when he had ample opportunity to get it out of the way. So in my opinion he should have been given a serious penalty.

Normally when there is clear favorite to win DOTW I use that as an opportunity to vote for one of the drivers who will get overlooked. But while there were some stellar performances, this week I think Hamilton was really heads and shoulders above everyone else – a brilliant pole lap, and he had a mega start and looked to be on pace for a lights to flag win. Even though he was helped by 2 SCs, he had a lot of composure to come back and had some brilliant overtaking moves along the way.

Hamilton for DOTW….. But I dont think that F138 had much more to offer to both ALonso and Massa. ( I am talking abt Ferrari coz I am a big Alonso fan ). The car looked handful if not awful on that track and it had balance issue. Atleast 4 teams were faster than F138 namely RB, MERC, STR and FI but Alonso did make the difference on the race day..

Voted for Hamilton.
Like Alonso in Valencia last year, he showed what the phrase Home Advantage actually means.
Credit to Webber as well though, never missed a podium at Silverstone since 2009. He must’ve really liked this circuit. If his radio message was any indication, his terrible start wasn’t completely his fault.

And Alonso so don’t deserve 11% of the votes. His ****-poor qualifying (even by his standards) made completely sure of that.

It’s never been so difficult because there were a lot of drivers with outstanding performances. Vettel, Webber, Rosberg, Hamilton, Sutil, Di Resta, Massa, Ricciardo… But I chose Hamilton because Qualifying and Race combined he impressed me the most. Nailed it in qualifying, kept Vettel at distance before his puncture and even when he was last, he never gave up fought his way impressively back to fourth and almost got third from Alonso.

I voted for Webber.Yeah…I’m biased……But he did have a bloody good race with a lot of good overtakes and could have won if it weren’t for the length of that last safety car period.
There were quite a few other good drives notably by Hamilton and Ricciardo….Not sure what happened to Ricciardo in the end though dropping back to where he ended up finishing.

Isn’t i strange how Webber almost always seems to have a bad start whenever he is alongside Vettel?
looking at the overhead of the start,Webber got off the line okay but then got swamped.

For me it was either Hamilton, Massa, or Di Resta. Di Resta and Hamilton both being top-notch in qualifying, and then overcoming significant set-backs. I Would love to have voted for Massa, but his qualifying performance was really lack luster, although he did bring his A-game for the race it seemed. I’m not surprised if Lewis wins the vote, but I put mine for Di Resta today. I think that was a valiant charge from the back after being handed that grid penalty.

I voted for Hamilton, his qualifying performance was impressive and he put in a great drive back up to fourth with a car which wasnâ€™t 100% after his tyre exploded. I think that without his tyre problems, even if Vettel didnâ€™t have any reliability issues, he won have won his home Grand Prix.

The safety car periods bunched the field up which meant quite a few drivers were able to put in good recovery drives such as Webber, Hamilton, Massa and Di Resta.

I also felt Ricciardo had an great weekend, which was good timing what with vacancy at Red bull opening up for next year.